Sit back and get ready to take off with Dynamic Golf.
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So, all right.
Welcome listeners.
Welcome to Dynamic Golf Podcast.
I'm your cohost, Tim McElvano.
With me is my fellow cohost, Sean Klotz.
And today Sean, please let us know what is our guest for today.
This one's about 40 years in the making, T-Mac, which is kind of interesting.
But some of the listeners know that I've moved up here to Oakley Country Club in Watertown,
Mass.
From Peabody, Mass originally.
And my boss, my head professional at Oakley Country Club is Scott Johnson.
And we're just excited to have him.
So Scott, just introduce yourself a little bit to the listeners and kind of tell them
who you are a little bit and where you came from.
No pressure.
My name's Scott Johnson.
I've been at Oakley Country Club for the last 25 years.
I've been in the golf industry for, oh, 36 years now.
Six other clubs prior to coming to Oakley in 1999.
Grew up playing golf my whole life.
Learned from a brother who helped me to play when we first snuck onto a golf course.
Got the bug when I was 13 years old and have had it ever since.
I eat golf.
I sleep golf.
I dream about playing better golf.
I do.
I'm a golf addict for sure.
Wow.
And you've been a PGA pro since 94.
Is that correct?
That's correct.
Yeah.
Nice.
Very good.
He snuck golf courses like me and you used to too.
That's just so, you know, we were talking beforehand because we worked together every
day, but then I'm like, you know, just kind of prepping them a little bit for what we're
doing today.
It's so funny like how we all kind of come from that same little background of like my
brother's five years older.
My brother is the same age and class as Scott.
So they went to PVD high school together and they went to University of Tampa.
My brother came back after a year, but that's how I've known Scott since I was 12.
But I would always tag along with my brother, you know, working balls in the backyard or,
you know, going down to the local golf course, cutting through the fence that we're not supposed
to be.
So I was talking the same story with his brother.
It was funny growing up.
My brother's 10 years old when I was, so all his buddies were playing golf and he was babysitting,
quote unquote, me.
So he would drag me to the golf course and I would either carry the bag or put it on
a push cart and carry it.
And that was at a public golf course in Salem, Mass.
Called Salem, Muni.
So I would sneak on there.
Then as I got older, I lived near Salem Country Club, which is a top hundred in the United
States, we would ride our bikes up with our bags on our back and ditch our bikes in the
woods.
And then we'd sneak on to Salem and play number 7, 8, 16.
We'd skip around and play a few holes and just, you know, doing everything that kids
do.
And that's where I learned the game.
Then I went on to Caddy and I worked in the bag room at Salem.
And then I worked as an assistant at a number of different clubs.
And, you know, I've been in the business forever.
You've got to have a real passion for it, don't you, Scott?
I mean, you find a bug for it and you find any way to get out there to play it.
You find any way to get into the industry of it.
So yeah, everybody I find that gets into this industry has either some sibling or somebody,
an older mentor that gets them into the game and they really get a big bug for it.
Wouldn't you agree?
That's exactly what it is.
I call it, it's in your blood.
If you love the game and you want to be in the industry, you find a way to get in the
industry.
It's either as a golf professional or it's as a sales rep.
If you love it and are passionate about it, which and you can see it in people when they're
into it and love the industry and they're engaged.
That's the word I use all the time.
It's funny.
We're a private club here and I was telling my staff, I said, we're not in customer service.
We're in hospitality.
Any club pro who tells you they're not, they're in customer service, they're not doing it
right because we're in hospitality.
This is about anticipating people's wants and needs before they know they want them
or need them.
That's what hospitality is.
Correct.
And the experience that those members or people have when they come to your facility, correct?
Correct.
That's what we provide.
We want it to be an experience when you come here either as a member on a regular basis
or as a guest.
It should be a special opportunity.
Yeah.
And I always come back to the Disney idea, when you go there, it's like it's your home
away from home and everybody's there to greet you and say hello.
I think that's the feeling I get when I get to Augusta or something like that.
So yeah.
You ever seen a negative Disney employee?
I don't think there's too many working there.
Yeah.
They're gone in a hurry.
They're back in the cast room or wherever they call that.
That's violent.
Yeah.
Exactly.
They're smiling and like Scott said, just anticipating needs.
So it doesn't matter if it's public, semi-private, private, the people are here for the four
to five hours and they're trying to either get away from their life for four to five
hours.
Yeah.
Partially.
They're trying to work on their own game.
Some reasons people play golf, because they weren't good at team sports.
That would be me.
I wanted all the glory and all the fame, and I also wanted all the negatives.
And I knew if I needed to go practice, it was just me.
You didn't need to grab five or six others to play basketball or play baseball.
But it's also a social hub too for a lot of people too as well.
It's definitely a home away from home.
Instead of sitting around the house and futzing about there out there with their friends,
engaging with the club pro or the employees there or even the maintenance staff, they
just find it as a home.
I always find, at least in that industry.
I'll give you a quick story.
This goes back a long time.
My first year in the business, it's an August day.
I'm working outside running the cart barn.
The cart barn is about 70 yards away at Tadeus Co.
Country Club.
Well, I'm the only one working.
It's really busy and it's about 102 degrees.
So I'm running back and forth pulling carts, getting people ready.
And a member, Greg Keating comes around the corner.
I forget his first name, but I think it's Greg.
He comes around the corner and he says to me, how are you doing today?
I said, I'm doing pretty good.
Mr. Keating, how are you?
He says, I'm such a hot day.
You're doing okay?
How well do I know?
My boss, who I've been working for four months, is standing in the doorway listening to the
interaction.
And I said, if you really want to know Mr. Keating, my day sucks.
I go, it's 104 degrees.
I'm the only one working.
I'm sweating my ass off and it's busy.
And we're going back and forth.
And I put his clubs on a cart and he goes out to play and the golf professional, still
one of my closest friends in the business, calls me in his office.
He says, close the door, thinking, huh?
I've been here four months.
He's never closed the door.
I walked in, closed the door.
He says, what did you say to Keating?
I said, you know, he asked me how my day was going.
I told him.
He said, what did you tell him exactly?
I said, well, my day kind of sucks.
He says, I don't care.
They don't care.
The minute you close your door in the parking lot, I don't care if your cat died.
You had a fight with your girlfriend.
You put a smile on your face and you come to work.
That lesson is 36 years old.
I tell that story 10 times a year.
My staff can recite it back to me because it was so invaluable to me in my career.
I've never forgotten it.
And it is the basis of my professional career.
T-Mac, the funny part of the story is that he told us that speech literally the day my
cat died.
The day before I started working here, Tuesday in March, and he tells a story and he's like,
oh, sorry, Sean.
It's just always part of the speech.
It is.
Well, I'm sorry to hear that your cat died.
I didn't even know about that.
We'll have the therapy session later.
No, absolutely.
Absolutely.
So, you know, with such a rich history there at Oakley Country Club, I mean, I'm just kind
of looking through the history here, Scott.
I mean, you've got people like, you know, the Roosevelts have played there.
Bobby Jones played there.
I mean, can you touch a little bit on the history of that course that you've been at
for so many years, 21 years, I think it is now?
It's actually year 25 for me.
25, okay, sorry.
Most famous part about this, Tim, is it's Donald Ross's original golf course.
He came over from Scotland in 1899, walked from where he sailed to in downtown Boston,
walked out here four miles, had nothing to his name.
He became the Green Superintendent and then went on from here.
He worked here for 11 years as the club pro and the superintendent and then he went on
to his career after that.
By far the most famous person we've had here.
We've had a ton of famous players.
We've had a ton of famous women.
The Curtises have played here.
These are big names in the Massachusetts golf history.
Oh, Mike Ohanian.
Fred Wright Jr. won the state amateur seven times, I believe.
We've had a rich history here, both men's and women's golf.
It's really, it's a staple in the New England area, for sure.
Yeah, I mean, you know, you just look at the history that, you know, because I'm looking
at the website that you guys have, which is a great website if anybody gets a chance to
take a look at it.
But just the history through time, you know, everything that comes through is absolutely
amazing.
So, I mean, it's just got to be great to, you know, it's got to be an joy to go to something
that's just so rich with history and knowing that you're contributing to that history as
you go through the halls.
Yeah, I'm pretty proud of it.
I'm fortunate to work for such a great membership for such a long period of time.
This day and age, as you both know, that it's hard to be a club pro at one club for more
than 8, 10, 12 years.
I'm a bit of a dinosaur at this point, having been here for 25 years.
Again, I work for a great membership, so it's really not very difficult to keep them happy.
It's cool to you, Mac.
They honor their history, meaning like currently we're taking applications for the Fred Wright
golf tournament that's coming up, right?
That's a three-day member guest, right?
We just got done with Donahue Cup qualifying, which is named after a pro who was here for
34 years, Paul Donahue.
Later in the summer, we're going to have the Johnson Cup golf tournament.
Johnson Cup?
Johnson Cup, yes.
Johnson Cup.
That's named after Scott Johnson two years ago?
Eight years ago now.
Oh, wow.
Pretty cool.
Congratulations.
That's pretty stout stuff right there.
It's pretty odd, yeah.
I owe it to a gentleman named John Coughlin and another one named Fred DeVito who wanted
to run another what we call plaque tournament, which this is an individual quarter event
that runs throughout the year.
My boss at the time was Coughlin and he said, hey, Scott, we're going to unveil this plaque.
Can you hold it?
I said, sure.
I'm holding the plaque and it's got a tablecloth over it.
My staff at the time happened to be there, unbeknownst to them and me.
He says, okay, we've got the individual quarter tournament.
Scott, why don't you unveil it?
I looked down and it says Johnson Cup on it.
I looked at my boss and I said, I'm going to kill you.
My staff is in the corner, Tim, and they are laughing because my job is to provide a service
to the membership and I call it fly under the radar.
I don't like the spotlight.
It's not my personality.
To name a tournament after me was a little bit bold.
I cringe most of the time.
You could have named it after a number of different people who've been here for a long
period of time.
It is a tremendous honor.
It's an absolute tremendous honor and that's a tremendous amount of respect from my membership
for me and I truly appreciate it.
It's a big award.
It's a big tournament and I'm just trying to stay out of the way and do my job.
Gotcha.
That's great.
Congratulations there, Scott.
That's great.
Thank you.
Some of the stuff we talked about, TMAC too, is history.
Some of the things that are done differently in Oakley.
I'm going to let Scott touch on this, but the caddy program at Oakley Cuddle Club, above
and beyond.
I think two things as I see it from the outsider now starting to become the insider.
The members are gracious with their sort of acceptance we'll call it and time and willingness
to realize that we've got these 12 to 16 year old kids and there might be 30 of them on
the bench, TMAC, on a Saturday morning.
Really on the bench, just picture Caddy Shack audience.
It's the same thing.
There's not a caddy master.
There's no Bill Murray going around there trying to fight the groundhog.
Pat does a good job with that, our superintendent.
But it is.
It's a caddy principal caddy program and Scott's just been a beacon in the industry on this
program and he accepted the We Met Scholarship Pro of the Year in 2019.
Yeah, so go ahead and talk about that Scott a little bit.
Our program has been running for 25 years.
I grew up as a caddy at Salem Country Club and I was the small kid that always outlasts
because I was short and had trouble carrying bags or they thought I did.
And then I worked my way up into the caddy ranks and it is the best way to learn the
game for most kids.
So when I became the head professional here, we had a limited caddy program and we've increased
it every year.
We promote it.
We train them over school vacation for eight hours of training and then they get the opportunity
to go on caddy.
Now, do we have all success stories?
No.
If we train 35 kids, if we get a dozen that are really good caddies, that's a pretty productive
year.
If you hit on 30%, we're doing well.
We've done that.
And one of the big carrots at the end and these are kids, remember 12 to 15, 16 years
old, they don't understand this part.
In Massachusetts, we have the We Met Scholarship Fund and it provides scholarships to caddies
who caddy for two years or work on the ground staff for two years.
They're eligible to get that based on need.
Last year, the We Met gave out over $3 million to over, I think it's 300 kids.
I mean, it's an amazing number.
The scholarship used to range between two and five a year.
Now they range between four and 50 in a year based on need and it's every year.
Unlike some scholarship funds where you get it for one year and it goes away, this one
is if you get it, whatever year you get it, every year thereafter until you graduate college,
I'm sorry, it's four years, in the four years, you get it and it goes up every year.
Oh, that's amazing.
Yeah.
You probably have heard of the evidence scholarship out in the middle of the country.
Little to that, only this one, Evans, they do it for smaller numbers.
This one hits a lot of kids.
It's an outstanding program.
The membership, by the way, also embrace it by donating money.
What's the number there?
100 grand that Oakley gives?
Oakley gives about $50,000 annually to the We Met Scholarship Fund.
Wow.
So, over the 25 years here, the club has been fortunate.
Yes, they've given over a million dollars and we've been fortunate to have probably
slightly over 100 We Met Scholars, which is one of the things I'm most proud of, not only
for me.
I appreciated the We Met Award, but this is an award that's club-wide, meaning my membership
contributes to it and then my caddies are participating in getting it.
It's a really big deal and it's one of the things I'm most proud about being a part of
the Oakley Country Club family.
Yeah.
That's tremendous support that you're getting from your membership.
That's amazing right there, the numbers that they're putting out.
One of the questions I was going to ask is how does the support of the membership there
contribute to the scholarship program?
That answered it right there for everybody.
That's amazing what they're able to contribute to your cause and what they're able to do.
That's amazing.
It is.
That's great stuff.
It's just, again, something that separates.
We talk about hospitality versus customer service.
It's something that separates Oakley Country Club from another golf course in the area.
There's a lot of great golf courses.
People have choices, but people want to join this country club for a reason.
That's one of them, honestly.
It's been great to see it in action.
The staff, not myself yet, but the other staff member, Scott, the other Scott and Karen do
just such a good job of getting the kids out.
Whether we have a tournament.
Last Friday we had a tournament.
Remember guests?
We got the kids out.
Sometimes they're four caddies, TMAC, which kind of goes like the unsung hero type of
thing.
You don't always have to caddy.
The four caddy program is just equally another way to teach the kids, which a lot of people
in the audience may not know what that is, but essentially you're just having the kid
go out.
Boys or girls, by the way.
There's been plenty of girls that have won the scholarship too.
You're going out in the middle of the fairway.
What I hear from the membership when that happens, oh my gosh, we should have this all
the time because we find the golf balls.
It keeps the kid engaged.
It lets them see the course.
They might not, not every person that comes on a golf course has the skill or ability,
but they have the love for it.
Find a position and a spot for them.
I think that's a great way for somebody that might just be beginning the game to start
out.
It's funny.
They make real money too.
It's really good.
Especially for a 13, 14 year old making a hundred bucks in a day.
It's like, okay, that's pretty good wage.
Many of those kids from my caddy program will go on to work in my bag room and they'll work
for me all through high school into college.
I've been incredibly fortunate.
I've had some guys work for me for eight or nine years, all through high school, all through
college.
One of them is named Chris McGuire.
He worked for me for nine years and now is back.
He's a full member.
So I'm getting to see some of these kids go through the program and come back as members
now, which is pretty, pretty, it's outstanding as well.
Wow.
Can you, can you, you know, are there any significant impacts on any students' lives
that you've kind of seen with this program?
You know, with that gentleman, I mean, but have you seen something where it kind of like,
you know, turn, turn the kid around a little bit, big, big changes for somebody or anybody
like that maybe?
I don't know if I've seen like, underprivileged kids?
Yeah, I don't know if I could name anybody specifically that way.
I can tell you it's funny to watch a boy, kid named Max, never been on a golf course
in his life ever.
And he want came through caddy program when he was 14 years old and he wanted to go to
NYU.
So this kid caddy, AM and PM, he'd caddy in the morning and in the start, obviously he
was carrying singles and by August of that year, his first year, he was carrying doubles.
He would carry doubles in the morning and then he would carry singles in the afternoon.
So he was doing this every Saturday and Sunday.
This kid in his first year made like $5,000 towards his education.
I love when a caddy has a goal.
I want a new set of clubs.
I want to go to college.
I want to buy new bikes or whatever they want because they're motivated.
And again, this goes back to something Sean said earlier.
It's about engagement and if you can get either my staff engaged with a membership or I can
get my kids, my caddy program engaged with a membership and they're motivated, I want
those guys.
That's who I want on my staff and you know a kid who's motivated.
He's here all the time.
We caddy on Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday mornings and the kids who are on the
bench on a regular basis, they want to get better and they want to do a good job and
they do and the better job they do obviously, the more money these kids make.
They make real money.
It's pretty impressive.
Membership is ridiculously generous to the program.
So in Silverado world which I know is a little bit micro like it's a Silverado Golf and Country
Club in Zephyrh Hills, when I was there, if we had a program like that for Zeke Kinzman
or for Nora, remember like Nora, the 11 year old phenom?
She ended up going to Augusta, right?
So she qualified.
Yeah, the drive chip and put.
Right.
So if we had a program kind of like that for those types of kids in that area, especially
I want to say the word a little more on the underprivileged side and that's where you
see some of the inner city workings, how it works in some of the programs maybe at more
like a, what's the municipal.
Cleveland Heights or something like that?
Yeah, Cleveland Heights and Lakeland, right?
That type of thing or.
Rogers Park.
Rogers Park would be a good one.
Rogers Park would be a great one.
I spent some time there.
I spent three years of college career at Rogers Park.
So let's move into his playing career that he's very excited and humble to talk about.
He hates talking about it.
But bottom line, Scott, hey, how many times were you All-American at University of Tampa,
Scott?
Yeah, I'd love to hear it.
I was a two time All-American and an Honorable Mention All-American once.
And the team won two national championships back to back in 87 and 88.
I played with some great players, guys who went on to play on tour, guys who are just
won the national mid and we it was a program that was spectacular.
I call it the Fab Five Team Act.
To me, it was that confluence of just five guys from all over different parts of the
country going to a Division Two school that really wasn't known for golf specifically.
It was pure luck that we all got together.
And again, here's that we're going to go back to engagement.
You couldn't have found and it wasn't just we had five guys who played on a regular.
We had 11 or 12 guys that were pushing each other engaged.
Yeah, it was who's going to get better faster.
And it wasn't cutthroat at all, but it was challenging.
And I got to play with I got to play with Jeff Leonard who played on tour for three
years.
And Jeff Leonard in 1988 was the number two player in the country stroke average behind
Bob Estes from New Texas.
This kid was the best player in the country.
It was amazing.
This kid could do it all.
And he came out of Indianapolis, went to Tampa to play golf, play baseball, messed up an
elbow and then he had played a little golf in high school and then went on to become
basically the best player in the country those last couple of years.
It was pretty amazing.
Wow.
That is amazing right there.
We've talked about him a few times on the podcast already, right?
Well, we saw him swinging out there in Orlando, didn't we?
Wasn't it?
Yeah.
I mean, very unassuming.
You know, you wouldn't think, you know, definitely white man can't jump kind of guy.
You're like, I'm going to get this guy and boy, he will eat you for lunch.
You can tell.
Grew up in Indianapolis.
Great family.
Very unassuming.
And we'll and won't tell you he's going to kill you.
We played and I played with Lee Jansen and Rocco and they were a little more and Hugh
Royer up at Columbus College.
They were more in your face.
They were really good players.
And Jeff was at least as good, if not better than those guys.
Jeff would never say a word about himself.
The other guys were like, it was an advertisement.
Hey, look at me.
And I love Jeff for that.
Still one of my still close friend of mine, just a tremendous person and a tremendous
player.
Better person.
You play with Kraft too?
Greg Kraft?
Yeah, I played with Greg Kraft for a season.
My freshman.
Yeah.
Greg Kraft's.
He played on tour for 21 years.
Kraft's name was Cheese Wiz because Kraft obviously.
OK.
Kraft was an amazing player, but a guy who humble was not in his vocabulary.
And I don't really.
Yeah.
Sorry, Greg, but that's who you are.
I don't know if he's listening yet to our podcast.
So we'll probably get on to it.
So from college, then you did you try any mini tour?
Try for a couple of years.
What did you do?
Try for the year pretty much after 88.
I came out.
I played all the New England stuff.
Jeff Schroeder and I, my college teammate, we traveled together all summer, played all
the opens.
I did fairly well.
I finished in the top 10.
You know, I never won anything big, but I finished.
I was a pretty good player.
Then I went back to Florida.
I said I was going to go play for the year.
I ran into Jeff Gallagher, the third at Disney and we played.
We were paired the first two rounds together at a mini tour event and I played pretty good.
I shot 7169 and he shot 6564.
He hit it further than I did.
He hit it more in the middle of the fairway than I did.
He hit it closer than I did.
He punted it better than I did and he had sponsorship money.
I said, okay, all right.
And this is just one guy I'm thinking to myself, how am I going to do this?
And that was up through May and then I had had my name out up here in Massachusetts on
the, knowing the PGA board for a job.
And of the blue on June 1st, the guy at Tedesco Country Club, Bob Green, the one I shared
that story about parking your car and putting on a happy face, called and said, hey, I need
somebody.
And I lived in the town next door and I went to work for him.
I only worked for Bobby for one season before I went down to Milton to go to Walson Golf
Club.
And it put me in the business and I realized at that point I could play locally at a pretty
high level and did for a long time.
But I wasn't going to play on TV.
It just, A, I didn't hit it far enough and B, I didn't have the sponsorship behind me
to do it.
So for me, it was an opportunity that I jumped on and here I am today.
Wow.
Pretty impressive resume right there, T-Mex, so talk to the listener, Scott, a little bit
about your Walson, your U.S. juniors experience.
I think that's a good one for those of us to hear.
Yeah.
1992, I'm down at Walson Golf Club in Milton and we're holding the U.S. junior and it's
Tiger's second year.
So he won and he was 15 years old and he won at Lake Merced, I think.
Wow.
And we were hosting in 92 and we're out there and he comes down to play and 16 year old
Tiger, by the way.
Yes.
Skinny as a stick, right?
All decked out and all Nike stuff and he gets to know me a little bit because the other
assistant who was working at the time had to go in for emergency hip surgery.
So he was in the hospital.
So he wasn't around much and I had myself and a guy named Dana Smith and we were there
to run the event and Tiger found me one early on in the week.
It said, hey, can I get down to the range?
And I would take him down.
Walson had two men to the range.
He liked to hit at the far end of the range where there were less people.
So I would bring him down and I'll never forget, we're driving.
It's about a half a mile to the far end of the range.
We're driving down.
He's got a sports psychologist on the back of the car.
We're driving down.
I looked at him and said, what's it like to be you?
And he turned and said, everybody wants a piece of me.
He wants to touch me.
And I said, oh, and now right there, I knew that I just, I just wanted to leave them alone.
And I would bring down the other end of the range and I'm standing there one day.
I started to care if I watch it.
He goes, no.
So I stood off to the side and I got the, I got to see Tiger Woods hit balls for 30
straight minutes.
Me, him and his caddy.
That's it.
And it was, it was different.
Even then, you knew it was different.
It sounded different when we hit it.
And then he went out, then he goes on to play and he is prior to the final round.
He gets in the final round.
I think he's playing Marco Wilson and we're getting ready to go off to, he's getting ready
to go off to the first tee and the other assistant, Mike Bemis is the kid with the bad hip is
banged up.
He's in the shop.
And I said to Tiger, I said, could you do me a favor and meet my other assistant, meet
the other assistant.
So he came in and as we were walking in, this is when we had metal spikes.
We had a tile floor.
Tiger almost takes a dicks.
He has to grab onto the bag rack so he doesn't fall down.
I'm thinking I'm going to wreck this kid's back before we even get to play.
So he came over and he met Mike Bemis and he couldn't have been more of a gentleman.
He said, Hey Michael, I'm glad you're here.
Hope you get to see some of the final match.
I hope to see you on the golf course.
He was great.
Now whether you love Tiger or you don't.
I'm a big Tiger fan.
He was terrific.
So we go and we're watching the match and we're on the 16th hole at Wallaston, which
is a par five.
He is now two down with three to go.
So pins in the back right.
I'm with Tom Meeks with the time was running the USGA.
We're in the cart together and we're out in the fairway and Tiger hits it in the pin to
his back right.
And he hits it on the back fringe and he spins it back through the fringe to about four feet.
He makes it for four wins all now he's one down with two to go.
Okay.
The next holes is really difficult.
Par three.
He makes three.
He makes four.
We go to 18 or even Mark Wilson throws up on himself, make six Tiger makes bogey and
wins.
Okay.
And that's how we won it.
Second US jr down at Wallaston.
It was, it was pretty phenomenal.
That's amazing.
But you'd heard of this kid and then to see it in, in person is it was outstanding even
then and now you look where he is now.
Did you, did you, did you have a good sense?
I mean, you had a sense when you watched him then that he would, he was going to have the
career that he was going to have, or did you think it might've been a little hyped up a
little bit or did you say this kid's the real deal and I'm going to see him crush some records?
You knew he, he was the real deal when you watched him hit it, when you heard him hit
it.
So he, this kid's 16 years old and the sound it made at 16 was different than anything
pretty much I'd ever heard from any player, whether they were adult or a child, he hit
it flush almost every swing, single swing, which is pretty amazing because later on when
he was a Titleist guy, he went down, I can remember this, he went down to Manchester
Lane and they said early in his career, he hit it, he swung the fastest and he hit it
most in the center of any tour pro they'd ever tested.
Well, at that point, even before that, when we saw him down there, you knew how good he
was, you know how amazing he was and then to hear that stat afterwards about him down
at Titleist and how centered he hit it.
Now, no wonder he was good as long as he could putt it, which clearly he can, he was going
to get something special and he was, he was.
That's amazing.
That's amazing right there.
That was a pretty good story, right?
Yeah, that's, that's, I was captivated.
I'm sitting here all quiet.
Exactly.
So, Scott, you've got, as we kind of conveniently just talked, you've got four course records
that you can remember.
He's got one up here, T-Mac, he's got 62, there's two other players who've had 62 at
Oakley.
Jeff Bailey, previous pro and Paul Donahue, both shot 62 here at Oakley.
Yeah.
That's, that's eight under for the record.
Wow.
So my question is, was it nine under?
Oh, okay, my bad.
Sorry.
I got out of a stroke there, so my question to you is, because my low is 64, I've done
it a couple of times in my life, T-Mac, you've had some low rounds, like Scott, to you, when
you get to that zone, when you're in those areas of like that five, six under, and now
I'll arguably for us now at our age, it might be two, three under.
Yes, right.
Like the bars change a little bit, but, but like what, how do you get there?
Sort of, how do you stay there maybe for the listener, sort of the guy who's trying to
break 90, right?
The lady who's trying to break a hundred, whatever that is.
What's that sort of thing that you can kind of give them?
You always hear, stay in the present, those kinds of things, like don't think ahead, whatever.
It's a lovely catchphrase.
It's really difficult to do.
Think about what's in front of you and don't count how many players we have that are out
here and they know they're playing pretty well.
So they're on 16 and they add up the scorecard.
They're like, well, if I make three cars, I'm going to shoot 75 or I'm going to shoot
85 and I'm going to break 90 for the first time.
They're toast at that point.
Once your brain gets involved, now your brain's involved when you're playing golf, obviously,
but try to play each hole independently and put down the scores in the box and then add
them up after 18.
Don't add them up after nine.
If you do it, I did this, I was a score guy.
I'd add it up when I was younger.
Five years ago, my daughter got sick big time and I was playing golf.
That point was more respite.
Yeah.
Therapy.
So I went out and I started to play some big events up here and I finished second on our
section championship at my opium Tedesco and I played very well.
And the key to this one was I stopped adding up scores at that point because I really didn't
care whether I made a three footer or missed a three footer.
My daughter was in real jeopardy.
It didn't matter as much.
So the phrase that care less and play better golf is really a true statement where the
only one who really cares about how well you play is you personally.
Because the guy you're playing with is trying to beat you and the other two guys are trying
to play against you.
Golf is, as Sean said, it's an individual sport.
That's another reason I reached out to it too.
I was a baseball player and a hockey player and I didn't want somebody to make a mistake
and cost us a game.
Here you make a mistake in golf, it's all on you.
I like that part of the game.
I like that I can practice on my own.
But to keep, to stay in the present is to just look forward and hit the next shot and
not worry about the result and not worry about, not worry about the score.
Just play the next shot and don't add up your score.
If I could teach my membership, just put the numbers in the boxes, add them up at the end
of the day.
The second round of that section championship was at Tedesco Country Club and I'm playing
with a guy named Jeff Stewart, the other guy bailed out, so it's just the two of us, so
it's a little slow.
We play.
I think I'm playing okay.
I haven't just writing down the boxes and I go in and I hand the scorecard to, my numbers
are correct.
I still haven't added totals.
I hand it to the guy behind the computer.
He keys it in, he looks up at me and says, great round, 69.
I said, okay.
And I didn't know that I had shot 69, but that was the mentality I need to have when
I play golf.
Each one of us did that where you don't count and if you don't count, you're not going to
worry about the score as much, but people, we are score-driven.
What you make on that hole and oh, you know, I love the guy, Tim.
My favorite is the guy.
He's your buddy and Sean's playing with me.
We're buddies and I play great on the front.
I shoot 400 and he can't wait to tell me on the 10th team, hey, you know, you're 400.
There's a really good story out here about me.
I shoot 20, 29 on the front one day playing with three members.
10 at the time was a par five.
It's now a par four, but at the time I make four.
So I'm eight under after 10 and the member walked into the 11th team says, you know,
you're going to break the course record today.
I finished, I had three bogey coming in and the end of that show.
And that what it does is it takes you out of just playing golf and now you're thinking
about score and all that stuff.
It's totally different.
You really need to not think about score and just hit the shot in front of you and that's
all you can do.
It kind of like going back to the idea of if somebody's throwing a no hitter, you don't
go down to the pitcher and say, Hey, by the way, you just need to three more outs and
you get this no hitter.
I mean, nobody does that.
Right?
So, I mean, I think you just, when somebody's in the zone, at least when I see somebody
in the zone like that, I'm just, I'm trying to play out of their way and be quiet.
We played here.
We do a pro member every few years and I had my buddies come in and we're playing and one
of the guys I'm playing with, you guys did a podcast with Jerry York, his brother Billy's
playing with me.
Well, Billy never broke an eight and he's in my group.
And right now we've got two par threes 14 and 15 to finish.
And he's going to, all he's going to do is go bogey, bogey to finish and he's going to
shoot 78.
So I know this cause I'm sitting in the car with one of my guys, one of my guys, a car
guy I'm writing and says, Hey, should we tell them?
I go, if you tell them, I'm going to kill you.
And he went on, he made four three and he shot 78.
I think it was, it was the first time he'd ever broken 80 and it was during an event.
So it was, it wasn't like they were gimmies.
These were like real plots.
I was like, it was phenomenal.
But when you're in that zone, if somebody tells you, it talks about it, how about when
you make three birdies in a row?
Hey, you know, you made three birdies in a row.
No, I didn't know that.
You know what I mean?
Come on.
I'm paying attention here.
Oh, you know, you're going to make another one.
I have no idea.
I'm just going to go play golf and just hit the next one.
But we get too caught up in numbers and we get, you know, just play the game, play the
next shot, play the next hole.
Right, right.
And I think you also see that with, you know, just kind of turn it over to lessons.
You know, sometimes when I see lessons, I try to tell them, Hey, we got to go through
a process here, but they get so result driven.
You know, I think, you know, with numbers and results that people want, we live in that
world of instant gratification.
We want to see something, you know, low.
We want to see something, you know, go straight.
You know, they just don't take the time to make a, make a process of it.
I think that one drives me a little bananas as a teacher, quick fix guy, Tim, the guy
who comes and says, you know, my games, a mess fix me.
Huh?
Wait a minute, but well, your grip's terrible.
Your posture is bad.
Your backswing is out of place and you make a decent follow through.
Okay.
Well, can you fix them all at once?
No, I can't.
I can't.
And it's hard.
You know, we do, we do a fair amount of teaching and you can't overwhelm people.
If you give them too much stuff, you get them lost.
And then they are like, my game stinks.
You got to keep it simple.
Keep it simple.
It is pretty, you know, let's keep it basic.
There's, you know, fundamentals in golf swings that everybody has.
You better have a good grip.
You better have a good posture, good backswing to set up a good downswing.
That's that's pretty much of a teaching philosophy.
Absolutely.
Those, those fundamentals need a hold.
I got, I got two things to add to that, T Mac and listeners.
So my first story is, um, my dad passed away in 2007.
Uh, greatest guy in my life.
Scott's known him since he was a kid, came over for breakfast and he just knew my dad.
That's part of the legacy between the two of us, which was great.
So that green Valley country club in 2008, the first father's day after my dad passed,
I shoot 36 in the front.
Oh, life is great.
Things are good.
I go Eagle, birdie, Eagle, birdie, birdie on the next five holes.
Wow.
Seven up there.
Remember on number 15 T box says to me, Hey, you know, you're seven under like, yeah, I
do.
I wish you hadn't said anything to me.
And I wheel it in for seven under on the back nine and shoot whatever the number was 64
or whatever.
But it was, uh, it was just kind of a funny, like, I hear Scott tell the story.
We all have those, like the birdie thing is great.
Like just the reason, Hey, you almost want to say the 15 handicapped guy.
Like, look, the reason I'm here is because I'm, I already know all this, like, don't,
you don't need to add to that.
Like, you know, correct.
Um, so then the other part of that story is my brother.
I like this concept when he teaches, especially beginners, that he'll go do a playing lesson
and on the scorecard, all he's writing down is how many good shots that person's hit in
a hole.
Very, or just, Hey, you're on a par five and you hit two good shots.
He writes down to that.
That's a really good way to approach, especially as you're trying to break these barriers of
a hundred, 90, 80, like forget that number, I, I hate par on a scorecard because it's
for 1% of the population.
Yeah.
That's the problem.
That's correct.
I mean, as golf professionals, and I don't ever think this way, but one of my assistants,
Scott said, no, we're in the top 1% of the golfers in the world because we can break,
we can break 80 on a regular basis, but we can also break 70 here and there.
And most people, I mean, they look, they marvel at us and think, and the only reason we got
here and we were as good as we are is because we put the time there.
I wish people would put more time in the game is the game gives you not immediately.
It may take a little while, but it will give back to you if you put the effort in and people
in this world, instant gratification.
I want it now.
They're not, they don't put in enough work.
Yeah.
I definitely agree with that.
As you can tell, team, we probably need to schedule a part two with Scott because he's
got a ton of information in his head.
He does.
A lot of wealth of knowledge right there, a lot of history to go through, just an amazing
stories of Tiger and everybody like that.
Yeah.
I think we need to schedule a part two maybe next week or in a week or so, or something
like that.
This was enjoyable.
I enjoyed this conversation.
Thank you, Scott.
Thanks very much, Jim.
I really enjoyed it.
All we did was we touched on Donald Ross, Tiger Woods and coach Jerry York.
We're doing pretty good today, team.
I think we fixed a few people's swings with some mental imagery and trying to stay in
the zone.
If your buddy's in the zone, don't make a lot of noise.
Leave him alone.
Leave him alone, man.
Let him have his own life.
That's correct.
Exactly.
Great.
I want to thank Scott for joining us.
Welcome everybody.
Thanks for listening to us here at Dynamic Golf.
Sean, any last words before we break?
I like what you just said.
Play within yourself.
Play within your zone.
Have a good time.
Keep score when you have to, but otherwise just keep working on your game and put into
it what you want to get out of the bottom line.
Yeah.
I think the big thing is it takes time to develop these movement patterns.
If you don't put them in, you don't get them out.
You got it.
Last thing I will say, because I gave you two lessons this morning.
The reason why you go to get a golf lesson is so you have a plan.
Yeah.
Period.
Right?
Right.
The reason why people get frustrated, both my lessons were frustrated this morning out
there with me because they're not getting it.
That's okay.
I walk away, they hit one good one, and I said, okay, let's go putt instead of chip.
I still don't have chipping down.
No, you're not going to get it in this 15 to 20 minute quadro.
You're going to get it two weeks from now or a month from now.
You'll get it.
You have to go to the PGA professional to get the plan, and YouTube doesn't always work.
It's not individualized.
Correct.
YouTube is not going to address your issue.
Right.
I want to learn how to change an oil filter.
I'll go to YouTube.
Yeah, or something like that, but a golf swing, no siri bobcat.
No.
That's right.
Good stuff, man.
Good stuff.
Great.
Great update, T-Mac.
All right.
Thank you, guys.
Appreciate it.
Thank you, all our listeners out there.
Thank you, and have a good one.
Have a good Friday.
Talk to you soon.
Thank you.